A Kentucky District That Backed Trump 72-23 Just Backed a Democratic Woman 68-32

Wednesday, 21 February 2018 20:20

Kentucky’s 49th state House district went big for Donald Trump in 2016. While Trump won the state by a 68-32 margin, the Republican presidential nominee gained an even wider 72-23 win in the 49th.

The Trump wave was so overwhelming in the western Kentucky district that Democratic State Representative Linda Belcher lost the seat to Dan Johnson, a conservative Republican pastor with an record of posting racist and anti-Islamic messages on social media. Johnson’s victory helped Republicans take charge of the Kentucky House for the first time in almost half a century, and pundits began talk of how the state had “tipped” to a point where a Democratic comeback was hard to imagine.

Those who wrote off the Democrats in Kentucky will have to rewrite their assessments following a special election that saw Blecher surge back. Called after Johnson committed suicide, following Kentucky media reports that he had sexually abused a teenage girl at the church, Tuesday’s vote produced a Democratic landslide.